A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source. Various semiconductor materials may be employed in the fabrication of LEDs. For example, gallium nitride (GaN) is a commonly used LED material.
Exceptional performance has been achieved by GaN on GaN LEDs. However, GaN is an expensive material, limiting the commercial viability of GaN on GaN LEDs. To reduce costs, LEDs are instead frequently fabricated with cheaper substrate materials. For example, GaN on silicon (Si) LEDs are more common. However, such devices typically suffer from technical shortcomings arising from defects or cracks resulting from differences in thermal expansion by the two materials. The defects ultimately manifest as a decrease in efficiency, i.e., the conversion of electric current into light.
Thus, there exists a need for an improved LED design that overcomes the aforementioned cost and efficiency shortcomings of existing designs.